Thursday, December 12, 2013

7 December 2013 Ukraine's President Viktor
Yanukovych has held unscheduled talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir
Putin, on a strategic partnership treaty. Thousands of protesters continue to
block government buildings and occupy the main square in the capital, Kiev.
They are angry at the government's decision to reject an association agreement
with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Russia.

8 December 2013 Protesters in the Ukrainian
capital have toppled a statue of Lenin, as demonstrations against President
Viktor Yanukovich's government continue. A crowd estimated to be hundreds of
thousands strong gathered in central Kiev for a third weekend of protests
against Mr Yanukovich's decision to reject a pro-EU association pact.

11 December 2013 The Russian Federation
Council's Mikhail Margelov has told BBC HARDtalk Russia's economic relationship
with Ukraine is "pragmatic." Asked about reports of Russian officials
placing heavy pressure on Ukraine not to sign a trade deal with the European
Union, Senator Margelov said they were only trying to point out how
"interdependent" Ukraine's economy is with those of other former
Soviet countries - and that they could help Ukraine overcome its economic
problems. Since late November, thousands of pro-EU Ukrainians have been
protesting in Kiev over the government's decision not to sign the partnership
deal with the EU and calling for the president and government to resign.

11 December 2013 Police in Ukraine have
abandoned attempts to clear anti-government protesters from the capital Kiev. Violence
erupted at the occupied city hall hours after riot police tried to clear nearby
Independence Square. Now the protesters have reinforced the barricades and
refused to move.

12 December 2013 The European Union's
foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, says the president of Ukraine
"intends to sign" a trade and cooperation agreement with the EU,
after all. President Viktor Yanukovych rejected the deal last month, prompting
mass protests. Demonstrators are still occupying Independence Square in the
capital, Kiev. But Catherine Ashton told reporters Mr Yanukovych was now
committed to signing up to the EU deal.

Friday, November 22, 2013

A
government statement said the decision had been taken to protect Ukraine's
"national security". Hours earlier MPs rejected a bill that would
have allowed jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to leave the country -
which the EU had demanded as a condition for the deal to proceed. Ukraine had
come under intense pressure from Russia not to sign the historic EU deal at a
summit next week. The Ukrainian government said on Thursday that it was instead
looking into setting up a joint commission to promote ties between Ukraine,
Russia and the European Union. Russian officials said they welcomed any
Ukrainian moves to foster closer relations. Russia wants Ukraine to join its
own customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus, which it sees as a prototype
rival to the European Union.

The
EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called the decision a
"disappointment". "We believe that the future for Ukraine lies
in a strong relationship with the EU," she said in a statement. Ukraine's
President Viktor Yanukovych was later quoted by AFP as saying Ukraine
"will work further on this path... to EU integration" - although it
is not clear how this will now be achieved. Stefan Fuele, European commissioner
for enlargement, cancelled a trip to Kiev after news of the decision broke. He
had been due to travel to the Ukrainian capital for the second time this week
on Thursday. He tweeted that it was "hard to overlook in reasoning for
today's decision [the] impact of Russia's recent unjustified economic &
trade measures". Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt went further, saying
Ukraine had "bowed deeply" to the Kremlin, which he accused of using
the "politics of brutal pressure".

Monday, November 11, 2013

KYIV, November 7
/Ukrinform/. Poland is interested in purchasing the latest high-precision
anti-tank missile system "Barrier-B", developed and produced by the
Luch State Design Bureau, which is part of the State Concern
Ukroboronprom. This was stated by Waldemar Skrzypczak, Polish Deputy Minister
of Defense, responsible for armament and modernization, during the
International Exhibition Defense and Security 2013, Ukroboronprom's press
office said in a statement. "The Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland
expect updates of anti-missile systems and the modernization of weapons of
combat helicopters. We are ready to consider the purchase of advanced 105mm
anti-tank guided missiles produced in Ukraine by the Luch design office. We are
interested in the prospect of joint production of high-precision weapons,"
Skrzypczak noted. The sides agreed that prior to a meeting the Polish-Ukrainian
subcommittee on defense cooperation, to be held this month in Kyiv, Ukraine
will provide the relevant technical and commercial proposals.

The
anti-tank long-range guided missile system (ATGM) Barrier, a design by the
LuchState Design Bureau, is intended to defeat armored targets at
distances from 100 to 5,000 meters. The Barrier ATGM system comprises part of
the SHKVAL remotely controlled unmanned turret for armored personnel carriers
and armored infantry fighting vehicles, among them the all-new
Ukrainian-designed BTR-3E1 and BTR-4,
and the upgraded BMP-1M infantry fighting vehicle. The SHKVAL turret
accommodates two Barrier ATGM containers with ready-to-launch missiles.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

The Kalinin K-7was a heavy experimental aircraft built and
tested in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. It was named after Soviet aircraft designerKonstantin
Alekseevich Kalinin (1889 – 1938). The K-7 was
one of the biggest aircraft built before the jet age. It had an unusual
arrangement of six tractor engines on the wing leading edge. In civil transport
configuration, it would have had a capacity for 120 passengers and 7,000 kg of mail. The K-7 was built in two years at Kharkiv
starting in 1931. The K-7 first flew on 11 August 1933. The very brief first
flight showed instability and serious vibration caused by the airframe resonating
with the engine frequency. The solution to this was thought to be to shorten
and strengthen the tail booms, little being known then about the natural
frequencies of structures and their response to vibration. The aircraft
completed seven test flights before a crash due to structural failure of one of
the tail booms on 21 November 1933. The existence of the aircraft had only
recently been announced by Pravda which declared it was "victory of the
utmost political importance" since it had been built with steel produced
in the USSR rather than imported (mostly from Sweden). Kalinin was executed as
an enemy of the state in 1938 during the Stalinist purges. One of attached pictures were taken in Kharkiv early 1930s, and the third one is just a computer model created to show what the term of "flying fortrass" was assosiated with many decades ago.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

70 years ago, troops of
the Steppe front, successfully developing their offensive, forced the River
Vorskla, and after three days' fierce fighting, on September 23, captured the
regional centre of the Ukraine, the town of Poltava, a powerful German defense
centre in the Ukraine to the east of the Dnieper River.

In commemoration of the
victory achieved, the formations and units who distinguished themselves in the
fighting for the liberation of the town of Poltava were to bear the name of
Poltava. On September 23, at 21.00 hours the capital of the USSR, Moscow, on
behalf of the Motherland, saluted with 12 artillery salvoes from 124 guns the gallant troops of the RedArmy which liberated the town of Poltava. One of the numerous
places where the Soviet red flags were fixed was a monument dedicated to the
100th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava in the center of the Round
Square. It is easy to notice on the picture taken on September 23th that
the flagstaff is made of branch. Before to publish this picture in newspaper it
was previously corrected using a needle and a paint because there was no any computer
and Adobe Photoshop available at that time....

Sunday, October 6, 2013

This fall, during the
last conscription to the army, 5000 young soldiers will replenish the military
forces of Ukraine.

In parallel, recruitment is ongoing to the army of
contractors, said Defense Minister Pavel Lebedev.According to him, now Ukrainian army is manned
by the military on contract by 58 percent. This year it is planned to recruit 10800 soldiers bearing service contract. According to him, unlike conscripted
soldiers, the service contract will last from 3 to 5 years. Thus soldiers and
sergeants on contract deal exclusively with their professional responsibilities
that positively affect their military training.

The National Radio Company of Ukraine.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

This pretty
modest and inconspicuous monument is located in Leipzig near the St. Michaelis Church. Ithas been unveiled in honor of Jan Henryk Dąbrowski(1755 – 1818), a Polish general and
national hero.

In June 1812 General Dąbrowski
commanded a Polish division in the Grande Armee, joining Napoleon on his Moscow expedition.
However, by October the Franco-Russian war was over and the French forces,
decimated by a severe winter, had to retreat. Their defeat was completed by a
battle lost during the crossing of the River Berezina, in which Dąbrowski was
wounded. He fought under Marshal Auguste Marmont at the Battle of Leipzig (October
18, 1813).

His division was ordered to secure
the withdrawal of French troops from Leipzig. Price at which
the order was executed was very high, but anyway the division succeeded in holding
its position. The fiercest fighting between French army and Russian-Prussian
troops has taken place on the site where the monument was erected in 1863.

In the following year General Dąbrowski
returned to Poland,
unable to continue the fight any further. He was one of the generals entrusted
by the Tsar Alexander I with the reorganization of the Polish army, and was
named in 1815 general of cavalry and senator palatine of the new Congress
Kingdom, and awarded the Order of the White Eagle. He retired in 1816 to his
estates in Winna Gora in the Grand Duchy of Posen, Kingdom of Prussia,
where he died in 1818.

He wrote several military historical
works in Polish. His name, in the French version "Dombrowsky", is inscribed
under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris."Dąbrowski's Mazurka"
has become the national anthem of Poland. It was originally meant to
boost the morale of Polish soldiers serving under General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski.

Monday, July 15, 2013

The Russian Air Force has put the
advanced X-38 air-to-surface missile into service. Although the short-range
missile was developed for the T-50 fifth generation fighter jet, the existing
bombers and fighter jets, including Su-34 and MiG-29 CMT will be equipped with
these missiles.

The missile was tested in great
secrecy in 2012, and was commissioned in late December. The delivery of
missiles will be started shortly. The new missile will be equipped with
independently guided warheads. This solves various tasks and increases the
striking power of T-50 multipurpose fighter jets. The missiles will be placed
inside the jet that is being developed using stealth technology, says
editor-in-chief of the “Independence Military Review” magazine Victor Litovkin.

“A fighter jet may have special
characteristics, including non-visibility to radar and other detecting
equipment, but it is just an aircraft. But when it is equipped with
high-precision guided missiles, this is a high-precision aviation complex. That
can be considered a fifth generation fighter jet. The fact, that the missile on
board the jet increases its low visibility,” Victor Litovkin said.

The missile will not reflect on the
radar screen. It has another advanced feature. It can orient itself during the
flight using the GLONASS space navigation system. The recent armed conflicts,
including in Afghanistan and
the Middle East have shown that it is
difficult to discover targets from air even with the guidance from the ground
because advanced camouflaging systems have been developed. These missiles will
be guided to the target by a GLONASS satellite, says Victor Litovkin.

“The missile’s accuracy increases
owing to the GLONASS satellite that sees the target and missile and combines
these two points. When taking into account the fact that this is a supersonic
missile, a complicated task is solved, a missile that is flying at a high speed
is guided to a target. In short, this is a great achievement of Russian missile
designers,” Victor Litovkin added.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Land forces from17
nations began two weeks of collective training in a ceremony July 8 at the
International Peacekeeping and Security
Center here to mark the
official start of Exercise Rapid Trident 2013.

Rapid
Trident is a U.S. Army Europe led, U.S. European Command Joint Training and
Exercise Program designed to enhance interoperability between forces and
promote regional stability and security.

“Over
the last several months Ukraine
has set the highest of standards, and supported by dedicated planners from our
partner countries, has set the conditions for excellent training,” said
Exercise Co-Director U.S. Army Col. Alfred Renzi during his remarks at the
opening ceremony.

The
exercise is focused around a week-long field-training exercise (FTX), during which
the multinational force will conduct operations against a simulated enemy. In
preparation for the FTX, units will undergo one week of situational training
exercises that focus on key tasks such as countering improvised-explosive
devices, convoy operations and patrolling.

This
year’s exercise is the 11th iteration of Rapid Trident, which was previously
conducted under the name “Peace Shield” from 1998 to 2002. U.S. units participating in the exercise include
an airborne-infantry company from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, Observer Coach
Trainers from the Joint
Multinational Readiness
Center, 21st Theater
Support Command, U.S. Army Europe and the California Army National Guard.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Komsomolsk is a purpose-built mining city in central Ukraine, located on the left bank of the Dnieper
river, 120 km.
away from Poltava. The city is pretty young, it was founded in 1960 as the
residential and civic area for the Poltava Mining and Extraction Combinat. Nowadays
it is controlled by the Ferrexpo - the most important iron ore-mining company
in Ukraine.

Ferrexpo is a
Swiss-based iron-ore producer operating in Ukraine. The business was founded
by the Soviet government in 1960 as the "Poltava Mining and Extraction
Combinat" to exploit iron ore reserves in Komsomolsk, Ukraine.
The business was privatised in 2001 by the Ukrainian Government. In 1977 it
started selling its product in the form of pellets. It was first listed on the
London Stock Exchange in 2007. The Company sells most of its product to the steel
mills of Eastern Europe.

80% of the city residents are
employed by the mining industry. There are two gigantic open pit mines (up to 350 meters depth) and
several spoil tips on the city territory, to the north-east and south of the
residential area.

The industry is served by several railway stations. However,
the passenger service was discontinued and the city relies on intercity and
suburban bus links. The combinat operates its own freight river port. Due to
the profitability of mining, small city of Komsomolsk usually ranks high in all-Ukraine
city rankings of birth rate, living standards, (un)employment and housing.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

June 22, 2013 (http://news.xinhuanet.com) With commemorative events, Ukraine on Friday marked
the 72nd anniversary of the start of the Soviet Union's involvement in
the World War II, known as the Great Patriotic War in the former Soviet
republics.During a ceremony, President Viktor Yanukovych laid flowers at the
Monument of War Victims and said that Ukrainians should keep the
memories of the war alive.

"The current and future generations should know everything about that
terrible war, about every drop of blood, every tear shed in this war.
Hard truth about the Great Patriotic War is still with us," Yanukovych
said.

A moment of silence was observed in honor of the millions of Soviet
soldiers who died during the war that lasted nearly four years. Nazi Germany attacked Kiev in the early hours of June 22, 1941.

The term Great Patriotic War is used in Ukraine to describe the period from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945 in the many fronts of the eastern campaign of WWII between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany with its allies.

With 134 Divisions at full fighting strength and 73 more divisions for
deployment behind the front, German forces invaded the Soviet Union on
June 22, 1941, less than two years after the German-Soviet Pact was
signed. Three army groups, including more than three million German
soldiers, supported by 650,000 troops from Finland and Romania, and later augmented by units from Italy,
Croatia, Slovakia and Hungary, attacked the Soviet Union across a broad
front, from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south.
For months, the Soviet leadership had refused to heed warnings from the
Western Powers of the German troop buildup along its western border.
Germany and its Axis partners thus achieved almost complete tactical
surprise. Much of the existing Soviet air force was destroyed on the
ground; the Soviet armies were initially overwhelmed. German units
encircled millions of Soviet soldiers, who were cut off from supplies and
reinforcements.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

www.for-ua.com 5 June 2013Total strength of Ukrainian army will be reduced from 184
thousand to 122 thousand soldiers, press office of the Defense Ministry reports.
Last week the Cabinet approved the army reform state program for 2013-2017,
which provides for the optimization of the army to ensure its combat capability,
which will be achieved primarily by reducing the number of personnel, without
affecting the fighting capacity.Moreover, the program also foresees
improvement of social protection for militaries and their families, as well
upgrading of equipment and armament. The press office also reminds that the last
conscription will held this autumn, and the last conscript will leave the
service in 2014.As ForUm wrote in the article "Volunteer army:
inevitable or incredible?", the authorities have been talking about
contract-based army for a long time. Despite permanent lack of finances, the
Armed Forces already have an experience of forming divisions and corps by this
principle. Thus, in 2000 the Armed Forces numbered 28.8 thousand contract
militaries, and in 2004 - 40.7 thousand soldiers. As of February 1, 2013 the
Armed Forces of Ukraine consist of 33% of conscripts and 54% of contract
militaries.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

I was very please to be in the
holiday of the military history in Djuramosa. I’ve never seen before so many
guests who came from the whole Sweden
to participate in this event.Most of all, I was impressed with military show.
Some pictures taken in the hospitable Djuramossa you can see below. Many
participants and spectators were able to by a lot of books and DVDs on military
history in SMB book tent. Those who got hungry, got a chance to test a real
military pea soup. Even a heavy hailstorm failed to spoil such a nice holiday!

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Pekka Visuri, Doctor of Political Sciences and retired
Army colonel, has lectured on some aspects of Ukrainian and Finnish military
history on March 12th in the PoltavaBattleMuseum.
The lecture went off enchantingly. Many scholars, teachers and students were
present. The lecture was a joint event with the Finnish Embassy in Ukraine. Before
the beginning of the lecture the director of the museum Natalia Bilan gave the
flour to Ambassador of the FinnishRepublic to Ukraine Arja
Makkonen, who introduced him to the audience.

The lecturer has worked 15 years as researcher
at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki
and from 2008 at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki.
He has been adjunct professor at the NationalDefenceUniversity
in Helsinki,
specialized in security policy, strategy and political history. At present he
is senior fellow at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki.
He is now working in the EU/CBSS projects (EUSBR, PA 14 and Anvil) concerning the strategy for the
Baltic Sea Region, special area civil protection.